The Party

Twenty days later.

Anyway!

There are really not many pictures because I was busy socializing and taking care of a cranky birthday girl.  Tyler was in charge of photographing the gift-opening.  Bad thinking.  Tyler snapped a few of the first gifts and then he was distracted by Alyssa (there is an Alyssa video, too)...all without the much-needed flash!  Here is what I found hours later as I was excitedly looking for birthday pictures:

FAIL.

So, yeah, not lots of photos, but we did have a really great time!  (I feel a tad guilty because I have over 400 pictures from Scarlett's first birthday party, but what can you do!?)

Now for the decorations...they were not pinterest-worthy, but I'm just excited because I had the party at our house.  That never happens.  (It's a fixer-upper that we're not particularly excited to fix, so there ya' go.) Buuut it was just too much to plan a party, move everything to my mom's house, and then try to decorate there.  Too. Much.

It was amazing to be able to get everything done, so when Poppy woke up that morning, it was a party everywhere!  And then I could really focus on birthday fun instead of party decorating stress!

So here they are:

Who doesn't love streamers, pictures everywhere, and (VEGAN!) cupcakes?!  For the cupcakes, I used a pinterest idea and crushed rock candy on top of the frosting and it looked really pretty!  Decorating with frosting is absolutely not my thing, so the rock candy was perfect: easy and fancy!

Her birthday outfit is from Mud Pie; it wasn't monogrammed, but it was too fun not to get!

Poppy wasn't as impressed with my culinary skills as I was, but we got her with a birthday cupcake, in the same shot, so let's call it a win!

(See?!  I was great at documenting the party girls before the actual party...!)  The morning of the party was spent distracting the ladies with doughnuts and balloons to keep the house clean!  It worked!

Can't think of a title. It's a post about all kinds of stuff. Yay for actually blogging!!!

My number one thing that I care more about than 50 Shades of Gray: Okay, BA.  She rocks my world.

I have been birthday planning list-making 24/7 in my head...time to actually make it happen!  (How fun that I get to do it again!)

I went to volunteer in Scarlett's nursery school classroom...and stayed the whole time.  Suffice to say, I miss teaching.

The Blacklist.  Scandal.  There goes my weekend.

I HAVE A HAIR APPOINTMENT SATURDAY MORNING!!!!!  Getting a cut and going brunette...my mom is going to think I'm in a funk, but really I'm just looking for some fun, a change, and a little bit of perk!

Staying home with my babies is amazing.  AMAZING.  And I want to do nothing else, buuuut...it never occurred to me that I needed to maintain hobbies that interest me.  ???  Clueless.  But then my mom "interventioned" me AND I read Kelle's post.  I have made walking, tanning, reading, volunteering more of a priority and I feel more like myself now.  Loves it!

I am tanning again.  Gross, I know.  But prettiessss x100!  I just need to make sure I don't look like I tan.  Just vacation lots in Mexico.  ;-)

Scarlett sleeps in her own bed.  In her own room.  All night, every night!  Now I have to buy her an American Girl doll...more on that later!

Have you seen Julep's new lippies???!!!  Because I have and I want them. all.

Halloween is coming...strange to think of where I was just one year ago...!  Always with this little piggy and about ready to have a second baby girl!!!

An entire month of blogging in one post.

Well, September has been an eventful and fun-filled month, so far!  First of all, Louisa Violet Francis turned THREE on the 10th!!!  (Ahhmmm...since her mother hasn't blogged about it yet, I feel like I'm safe...!)  Here is Lulu's special day in pictures:

Laughing??  And no fights?!  Scarjo must know it's her birthday!!!

Lulu S-L-O-W-L-Y dragged that kitty away...she is a smooth one!

Poppy loving the birthday shopping!

Captive audience...just waiting to get their hands on her goods!

Lulu loves her some chocolate!!!

Oh, Alyssa!

Lulu, the Ladybug Girl!

And then, the 13th marked ONE YEAR since Scarlett stopped nursing.  Just one.  How crazy is that?!  At the time, it wasn't a bizarre thing for me to nurse her to sleep, but now she's such a big girl, that I can't believe how much she has changed in such a short amount of time!

Poppy had her first visit to the Apple Farm!!!  Parties!  It was a quick visit and perfect because it was a Wednesday at noon -- no one was there!  Tyler, Mary, Brian, and Lulu met Scarjo, Poppy, and me there after our MOPS play date...very spur-of-the-moment!

Another eventful change that's going on in our family...we're following my crazy mother's lead and going vegan.  She watched Forks Over Knives and that was it for her!  Then she read Skinny Bitch and that was the end for the rest of us; she converted us all to at least vegetarianism.  One by one.  Molly was the first to convert and the easiest because Mum buys all her groceries and makes most meals.  Mary and I have been open to the idea, but harder to turn because we (okay, mostly me!) just struggle at cooking in general.  Now we have to find substitutes??  Too much.  But it's happening and I'm excited to make my babies into healthy eaters!  Goodbye, Splenda (no, thank you, luekemia!), half & half (sads forever.), and buffalo chicken (hardest. thing. ever.) and hello, tofu, "princess" (forbidden black) rice, and soy milk in my coffee!  So far, so good!

Also, I went to the Ulta Benefit Brow Bar and had my eyebrows done!!!  After Poppy was born, my eyebrows fell out.  For reals.  Sooo, off to Ulta I went, after very badly trying to fill them in myself for the last 11 months.  The wax girl there was a miracle worker!!!  Totally worth the $12/per eyebrow (what!!!) wax job.  Totally.  Here is the evidence:

Clearly, I'm psyched!  

And now that September is quickly coming to a close...I need to order Scarlett's Halloween costume SOON!!!  I have had it planned for a few months, but keep forgetting to actually buy the costume.  Struggle.  Here she is last year...two days before Poppy was born!  I am not sure if I can come close to this cuteness, but I'm certainly going to try!

Birthday Recap!

Little Miss Katie Scarlett turned THREE on January 19.  It was an eventful 48 hours -- between everyone's works schedules and Alyssa's time with her dad, no one was free to get together for one big party, so we had an unconventional birthday fun that lasted all weekend!  First up was a mini-party at Grammum's, so Alyssa could be included and so Scarlett could blow out candles on a birthday cake.  The cake was a very important part for Scarjo!

She insisted that the cake said, "Happy Birthday Katie Scarlett!"

Grammum, Poppy, Auntie Molly, and Alyssa Lou!

Barbie gift decoration!  Grammum rocks!

Sister picture on the 18th

Her last day as a two-year-old!

Happy girl!

Friday night was a looong night for me!  After Scarlett's party, we went home, I put the babies to sleep while Tyler picked up her big gift, and then we both worked on getting ready for the big day!  Tyler put together the truck while I wrapped all the gifts!

I wanted Scarlett to wake up to fun surprises, so we had her big gift set up and ready for her to play with it...

She was surprised!

Scarlett in her new truck!

 Once she played with the truck for a bit, we headed out to Tim Horton's for our birthday doughnut tradition!

The birthday girl gets to pick out all 12 doughnuts!  Once she's started eating her favorite (usually the one with the most sprinkles!), the rest of us cut off little pieces of the different doughnuts and talk about all of our birthday plans!

After dropping Tyler off at work, we headed home to get ready.  Next up?  PEDICURES with Auntie Mimi and Lulu!  It was Scarjo's first pedicure ever!  She was psyched and it was so fun to hear her try to say, "pedicure," over and over!  Cute!

A little apprehensive!  

Lulu was less excited about the pedicure and decided to just get her nails painted!

Old pro by this point!

Grammum, Auntie Molly, and Cam met us at the nail salon, too -- parties!  Once all of our toes were pretty, Grammum, Scarlett, Poppy, and Cam went to get lunch and Tyler while Molly and I tanned!!!  Yesss!

Mary and Lulu went on their way to the Children's Museum and Tyler, Poppy, the birthday girl, and me drove to meet them -- there was still more birthday fun to be had!

As you can see, babies were breaking down and needed some DINNER!  Off to Red Robin we went...!  It was such a fun birthday for Scarlett!  She was excited to be THREE.  She equated being three with being a big girl, officially.  It's pretty silly how all the little ones just want to be "big."  

The wait staff was singing to her -- she was SO excited!  (even if you can't tell!) 

When we got home, Scarlett opened the gifts from Tyler and me.  The actual opening of the gifts was the best part -- what was inside was less important to her until the next day!

I tried to capture a picture of me with the birthday girl without much success...

Looks away at the last minute...

Okay, finally she looks!  But then I look wonky!

Bullet points because sleep has been hard to come by and I can only drink one cup of coffee...

• Nick and Vanessa Lachey had their baby boy.  Camden John is the name they went with, really??  That's the best they can do?!?!  The way that Vanessa talked about naming her baby, you'd think they would have thought a little bit outside the box!  I have to say, I think Jessica Simpson wins the best baby name award in this battle of the exes!!!
• Speaking of Jessica...did you see her on Katie??  The show was a bore and she really just talked about Weight Watchers, but at least she looked fantastic doing it!  Yay for Weight Watchers!
• I am addicted to Ebay.  For reals, addicted!  I communicate about my purchases with Tyler through our bank account because I thought he checked it diligently.  Turns out, he doesn't, so he was a little confused when all sorts of packages started arriving in the mail!  I can't help it -- HANNA ANDERSSON for almost no dollars!  Score.  Another ebay plus??  They have everything!!!  I lay in bed when I can't sleep (so annoying.) and go shopping.  They have Disney Princess things galore!!!!  Scarlett's making out like a bandit!  It makes it even more fun when she talks about the  "mail mail" bringing her presents because she's such a good girl!
• Scarlett has decided that "Sex" is no longer the kitty's name.  It's now, "Mister."  I'm okay with this...maybe it'll cut back on the weird looks we get from our neighbors as Scarjo calls, "Seeeex!" down the driveway!
• Tyler DVR'ed The 'X' Factor and The Voice instead of Big Brother last night.  We're fighting.
• Yay for Kelly and Michael!!!  I am soooo happy that they didn't go with Nick Lachey.  (Holy NL bashing today, huh?!)  Nick was such an awkward host (IMO) the last time I saw him on during the Olympics.  He started talking about the gymnasts' behinds and how the camera always focuses on them and he cannot help but look.  Um, they're kids!  Like 15 and 16 while Nick is at least double that.  It just made me cringe!
• Lulu's 2nd birthday party was a success -- Mary rocks!!!  She had fun with all of her new gifts and Mary ordered the yummiest cake ever.  YES!  

A dozen doughnuts on your birthday...best ritual ever!

Already a pro at unwrapping her gifts!

Bday gifts from her favorite auntie!!!

Birthday Girl poses!

Yay for new backpacks!

• Alyssa was in the local homecoming parade!  She is seriously awesome and full of fun!

First parade and she's already a pro!

Seriously the cutest little cheerleader ever!

She loved to cheer for Alyssa Lou, but was TERRIFIED of the fire trucks and their sirens!

• It's no wonder some kids have the attitude/behavior that they do after seeing this display at the playground.  After a little barefoot, unsupervised 4-year-old (ish, I'm guessing.) ran up and down the slide a few times while Scarlett was waiting to go down, I told him that, no, he couldn't go up again until he waited his turn.  He looked at me, turned around, and just ran up the slide again.  I looked around the playground again to see who was watching this little boy and no one showed up.  Then another little boy climbed to the top of the slide with Scarlett and was waiting nicely for his turn.  Finally, the naughty little boy's mother showed up, snatched him, and tore off with him dangling over her shoulder, kicking and screaming.  I thought to myself, "Good for her!"  If Scarlett had acted that way, we would have left the playground PRONTO!  Not that any parenting is better or worse, and it's always tricky to decide how to handle situations, especially in public, but IMO, she was doing the right thing.  All peace was restored on the playground...for about five more minutes.  THEN, the little boy's aunt came roaring onto the playground, hollaring to the boy saying, "Who said you can't go up the slide?  You can go up the slide!!!  I'll even go up with you!!!  COME ON!!!!"  OMG.  She was obnoxious.    It was a tunnel slide, so as soon as she tried to go up, she got stuck and she couldn't save herself because of her socks, so obviously, she just took off her shoes and socks and left them on the slide while she continued up, because that's what any sane person would do.  She was shouting and screaming with her nephew all over the playground; it was all so crazy and chaotic.  Then, as they made their way to the other side of the playground, Scarlett continued her route of running up the stairs and down the slide...but when she got to the bottom, she ran into the dirty, inside-out socks that were still there.  We left after that.  It's such a shame that that little boy has such a bad role model.  
• Phew!  Venting feels good!!!
• I realized that I should just be taking pictures of myself in a full-length mirror to document THE BELLY.  Duh!  But then I realized I'd have to clean my mirror first...I'll get to that.  Soon!  Baby 2 will be here in 6 weeks and 1 day!!!  Yikes!  
• It's Friday, so Scarjo has Rhyme Time with Meems and Lulu while I head to my doctor appt.  Yay for her, sads for me...those scales there really bum me out!!!  I don't think the birthday cake will be helping things!  ;)
• And here is a little sneak peek of Scarlett's halloween costume!!!  (I am SUPER prepared because baby 2 is due on the 27th, so I have to have Scarlett ready to trick-or-treat!)

Just need the underclothes and she's ready!